Check your genetic privilege!
Researchers recently discovered the obvious: It's harder for some people to lose weight than others because of their…rockstarresearch.com
A while ago I came across this post about 5 gene pathways which predict which of 5 strategies for diet and exercise would be optimal for you. What’s interesting about this research is not so much the predictive possibility. But, that there are at least two ideal diets and that what is ideal for one person might actually be detrimental for another.
About two years ago I came across Christopher Gardner’s presentation on the topic of diets and their effectiveness. In his research we see a very rare impartial study of several diets and their effectiveness. The candid discussion of the state of nutrition research lead me to the diet and exercise combination that finally worked to take me out of the morbidly obese classification for the first time in my life.
Today Stanford is conducting follow on research around the concepts of obesity phenotype. The study may show that there indeed are several metabolic phenotypes. This confirmation would be a material breakthrough for many people like myself who have honestly tried to follow health guidelines and yet found themselves classified obese or even morbidly obese despite following nutritional advice.
As for me, I did not get genetic testing but 20 years of attempting various programs lead me to believe that I didn’t need a test to tell me I was in both genetic disprivilege brackets. One day I may seek to confirm by lab test what I figured out by painful trial and error.
I made my changes carefully tracking what I ate, and how I worked consistently. Then held a pattern for at least 3 weeks before drawing a conclusion. The results were surprising but completely repeatable as long as I stuck with tracking and was honest with myself when my adherence to a given plan was slipping.
Put simply, I had tried to lose weight as a vegan runner but with very painful and limited success. I became a carnivorous weight lifter and saw shockingly fast results dropping 80 pounds in a matter of months.
If these lines of research prove out, it may be that there really is a faceted continuum of some basic healthy lifestyles at one extreme the vegan runner and the other the carnivorous weight lifter. I personally wouldn’t yet discount the possibility of a carnivorous runner and vegan weight lifter either. In this new model, individuals fall onto this spectrum somewhere based on genes. And this seems much more realistic than assuming we all have the same gut and musculature.
